So...we made it to Canberra. The eight hour journey was incredibly dull with very little in the way of varied scenery! We mostly listened to random selections of music from our ipods and ate a vast amount of haribo type sweeties. The only breaks in the monotony were three rest stops taken at 'famous' local landmarks. The first was the site of Ned Kelly's last stand, Glenrowan, which features a very large statue of Ned which is bigger than most of the buildings in the town. Sadly it was undergoing a torrential downpour when we pulled in so we didn't even get out of the car for a picture :( We carried on driving along the highway until we got to a very small town called Holbrook who's claim to fame is the submarine memorial on the side of the road. It is an actual submarine set in concrete and is huge! Luckily, just like the D-Day museum tanks, you are allowed to climb on it. We stopped here for a chicken-salad sandwich, had a walk on the submarine purely to stretch our legs ;) Finally we came across the 'Dog on a Tuckerbox' statue at Gundagai, surrounded with folklore it even has it's own song. I thought it was a bit lame and more of a statuette than a statue but it's one of the sights to see!

We finally got to Kirsti's appartment after a short stop at the supermarket to pick up the essentials ie, milk, tea bags and magnums. The supermarket is called Woolworths, bizarrely. Kirsti's appartment, which she shares with a student teacher called Kate, is on the north edge of the city and is almost in the 'bush', she even has a field of kangaroos over the road! It's really nice, a bit like Chris and Catherine's flat but a little bigger. I'm sleeping on the sofa and generally getting in the way!

I haven't had much chance to investigate Canberra yet. It is, as Bill Bryson describes it, a big park with a city hidden in it. It is certainly very green and spread out, took me nearly an hour to walk from Kirsti's appartment to the nearby shops the other day! I can see why people are unimpressed when they travel through Canberra, it is quite sedate and sleepy with not a lot going on but it has everything you need when living here. A massive shopping centre, cinema, pubs, bars and restaurants etc etc. There aren't many touristy things to do but some good museums and galleries, federal buildings, the obligatory zoo and aquarium and botanic gardens, I'm hoping to investigate these soon. I've been to the National Library (for the free WiFi) and the National Museum, where Kirsti works which was a very interesting introduction to Aussie history - a particular highlight was Rolf Harris' wobbleboard he played whilst covering Stairway to Heaven on Top of the Pops, a very pretty pink dress worn by some posh woman at some point and some stuffed wildlife! There are also some interesting Aboriginal artifacts and a 'garden' called the Australian Garden of Dreams which seems to have no plants in it at all....

I have mostly been spending my time mooching internet from McDonalds (to my eternal shame) trying to find a room and a job. The current situation is that I have found a room that I am hoping to move into at the weekend and I have joined three temp registers and am waiting for them to get in touch with work. I have also applied for a few longer term jobs that I haven't heard back from yet. Keep those fingers crossed!

All in all, it's going pretty well. I will be happier when I have some money coming in but I've only been here a week and things are progressing nicely. We're making lots of plans for things to do including visiting Uluru (Ayre's Rock), Sydney and New Zealand. I also need to schedule in some diving as I've carried my wetsuit all the way over here!

Hopefully I'll be updating again soon with some news of work...